


Three Sides of the Egg

by Rubynye



Category: The Shape of Water (2017)
Genre: Comfort Food, F/M, Food, Food as a Metaphor for Love, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-18
Updated: 2020-04-18
Packaged: 2021-03-01 16:35:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 590
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23720170
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rubynye/pseuds/Rubynye
Summary: Three eggs and three moments.
Relationships: Elisa Esposito & Giles, Elisa Esposito & Other(s), Elisa Esposito & Zelda Fuller, Giles (The Shape of Water)/Original Male Character(s), The Asset/Elisa Esposito
Comments: 14
Kudos: 40
Collections: Flash In The Pan: A Food Flash Exchange





	Three Sides of the Egg

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Aurae](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aurae/gifts).



> Written for Aurae in the Food Flash Exchange!

1) Almost as soon as Zelda realizes she left her lunch at home, the quiet girl smiles and hands her a neatly wrapped sandwich. Zelda already likes Elisa — she’s a gentle soul and a very good listener — but this wins her heart entirely. “Thank you, Honey!” Zelda exclaims as she opens the package — egg salad on wheat — and takes a bite.

A rubbery crunch greets her, as Elisa watches carefully, smiling expectantly.

Zelda makes the effort to chew ( _crunch, crunch, crunch_ ) and swallow, and consdiers for a moment pretending to enjoy the terrible sandwich. But it would be a sin, really, to let food be wasted like this, so she shakes her head instead. “Oh, Honey, after shift come home with me and let me show you how to cook an egg.”

Surprisingly, Elisa nods, smiling wider.

2) Now returned to His proper home He flourishes, and Elisa flourishes with him, in their deep waterlily pool beside the Great River. The people, ruddy and smiling, their hair straight and dark like hers, revere Him, and revere her for returning with Him; they bring their beautiful babies to her, to hold and bless with her kiss, and they bring gifts, mainly food, the only cooked food she eats now in her new wild life.

One bright day beneath a blue sky, a woman with twins brings strange little corn cakes Elisa has never seen, and sky-blue boiled eggs. The cakes are round and sweet, but He clearly prefers the eggs, and watching Him roll his head back and puff up His shoulders in delight, Elisa asks Him, _do you remember?_

 _Our first egg? Yes_ , He answers her. _Delicious. Almost as much as you are_.

Elisa cannot help but blush, her gills rippling in happiness, and smile.

3) Walter is everything Giles has dreamed of since he was fifteen, and a few things he never dared imagine, such as thickly mustached and scattered with silver hairs all over. The moment they met Walter gave him a broad bright smile, and the day he cautiously, lightly set his hand on Giles’, Giles grabbed tight and hasn’t let go since. And he’s from Bolivia, a country Giles hadn’t even heard of before he met Walter, a country of the great green wild Giles hopes Elisa and her water-god lover made it home to. Sometimes Giles almost wonders if Elisa had a hand in sending Walter into his life.

Now he turns from his empty icebox to Walter, apologetically saying, “I don’t have much right now, a box of crackers, some boiled eggs, a piece of — no, not that.” Apple pie isn’t supposed to be green. 

“Whatever you have is better than fine,” Walter says with that broad bright smile, sitting at Giles’ table, and Giles hands him the bowl of eggs. As he delicately cracks it, Walter’s big hand cradling an egg makes Giles’s tired old cheeks flush with heat as he remembers Walter’s hands big and careful elsewhere; then Walter bites into the egg and shocks him with a wide-eyed surprised look that fades into closed-eyed enjoyment and even a deep moan. “This is magnificent!” Walter booms, and stuffs the rest of the egg into his mouth, murmuring through it, “best egg!”

Giles just watches Walter eat, full of a strange warm fizziness he realizes eventually is delight. When Walter asks, “where did you learn to cook them so well?” Giles is dazzled by the sparkle in his eyes.

All he can do is stammer, thinking gratefully of Elisa, “A friend showed me.”

**Author's Note:**

> Some prompts I tried to work in: Character Tries A New Food For The First Time, Comforting with home-cooked meal, First Meal Together, Mortal Food is Surprisingly Edible, Showing Love through Food, & Your Cooking is Terrible But I Don't Want to Hurt Your Feelings


End file.
